Since the early 1980s, composition studies has arrived at a broad consensus that it is important to understand how social contexts relate to the cognitive processes and individual behaviors involved in writing and reading texts, although within this broad consensus are various notions of context and of how contexts relate to processes and texts. Drawing on both structuralist and everyday accoun...

Three recent papers, published just weeks apart, describe the use of fluorescent TALEs to tag specific DNA sequences in live cells and, in one case, also in fixed cells, the latter with potential clinical applications.

TAL (transcription activator-like) effectors (TALEs) are bacterial proteins that are secreted from bacteria to plant cells to act as transcriptional activators. TALEs and related proteins (RipTALs, BurrH, MOrTL1 and MOrTL2) contain approximate tandem repeats that differ in conserved positions that define specificity. Using PERL, we screened ~47 million protein sequences for TALE-like architectu...

For many Christians there is a renewed urgency about what constitutes Christian belief, and why, or why not, it might be important to share aspects of this with others in a multi-faith, global context. Interwoven in this search are issues of biblical interpretation, Christology and Soteriology. One of the di1culties in the current discussion is this: whilst the “solution” may be presumed to be ...

A correspondent has asked me about the origins of a legend which has become known as 'The phage in the letter'. Common to all variants of this story is the following: one scientist, called X, sends a request to another, Z, for a particular bacteriophage strain which Z has discovered. Z replies saying he is not sending it out. X thereupon plates out the letter and retrieves the phage from it. So...

Performing and receiving tattoos are typically forbidden in American prisons. What are the intentions of this prohibition? How well does the policy meet its intentions? How well does it promote the broader ends of prison institutions; to protect justice, provide efficient correctional services, rehabilitate criminals, and deter crime? I argue that repealing the prohibition of inmate tattooing w...

This paper critically analyzes Geoffrey Chaucer’s character Allison of his tale “The Wife of Bath” within the Canterbury Tales. The argument is made that Chaucer intentionally used this character to present his personal feminist ideals to his audience, thereby acting as an advocate for women under the guise of literary author. Evidence will be presented both from the text by analyzing her chara...

A little over twenty years ago, a group of scientists assembled in Asilomar, California, to consider the consequences of the newly invented techniques of genetic engineering, or recombinant DNA, as it later came to be called. There was in place a moratorium recommended by scientists and which we, working for the UK's Medical Research Council, had been instructed to heed by the Secretary of the ...

Here we show that designed transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) that bind to defined areas of the interferon beta promoter are capable to induce IFN-beta expression and signaling in human cells. Importantly, TALE-mediated IFN-beta signaling occurs independently of pathogen pattern recognition but effectively prohibits viral RNA replication as demonstrated with a hepatitis C virus repl...